I'm reusing this very old thread since it seems to be quite similar to what I would need...I have the need to view, for example, the contents of msg nbrs 3, 7, 10 and 16 on the list...there seems to be no way (to this newbie user) to do so without constantly closing/opening the msg view panel...even if the list could be clicked on ( to select msg) while msg panel is showing would really help and solve this problem.

If you mean like a preview pane, where you just click on a message in the list and you can read the message without opening another window -- yes, it's something on my todo list, but will require a significant GUI change.